Michael Bay does "it" again!

Rating: 4/10 (17 August 2005)

I didn't know much about this movie before I saw it (I only saw a short teaser once), not even the cast, but I did know that it was a science fiction movie, and being a sci-fi fan, I really looked forward to it. As I sat in my seat at the local cinema, the smile on my mouth was soon turned into a frown when I noticed the text "A Michael Bay film" (or something like that) in the opening credits. That was a big "uh-oh" for me because it seems he has a bad habit of trading story for action. Sure, I enjoy a good action movie, but not when the story goes out the window because the director thinks good pyrotechnics and digital effects can satisfy moviegoers just as well as a good story can. I'm not going to spoil anything at all here, so all I'm going to say to those who are considering seeing this film is: This script had the potential for greatness, but a lot of disappointing scenes in "The Island" makes me give it a 4 out of 10. Yes, this is a sci-fi movie, and I guess a lot of what I consider to be mistakes can be excused just because of that. But I think a really good sci-fi movie manages to "teach" the audience the movie's definition of reality, and that allows us to get more caught-up in the story. "The Island" has quite a couple of scenes in it (I won't spoil anything, relax!) where I just shook my head in disbelief. It was just as if watching these scenes abruptly pulled me away from the tension in them and got me stuck in a "reality mode". And for a sci-fi fan, the "reality mode" is not very much fun...
For those of you who are thinking "OK, I'm not going to see this film", not seeing it is probably just as good if you get as disappointed as me when you see a good script getting wasted. But I think a part of me still wants to recommend this film, because despite all its drawbacks, it's still a kind of story you don't see every day, and at times, it can be surprising and really exciting!
What you've just read is just my personal opinion (if anyone was wondering). There are as many movie tastes around as there are people, so for all I know, I might be the only one who got a kind of bad feeling walking out of the cinema as the end credits rolled by.